Stress increases as a result of the new school year

Emily Goldstein ’23, Public Relations Director|September 23, 2021

Photo by Emily Goldstein '23

The swim team practice now ends at 6 p.m. this year, which is a change for these athletes whose practice used to end at 5 p.m. This causes these athletes’ entire homework and night routine to be pushed back an hour, causing additional stress. Photo by Emily Goldstein ’23

After almost a full year of coming into school just twice a week, half-day Wednesdays and modifications to the curriculum in order to accommodate hybrid learning, school started back up in full swing for the 2021-22 year. Many students feel overwhelmed with the routine and pace that teachers have been moving at.

Caleigh Coughlin ’23 expresses the difference between this year’s first day of school and last year’s. 

“I feel as if my teachers really just jumped into classes on the first day, already planning out tests for the first week of school and loading up my calendar on Schoology,” Coughlin  said. “Last year on the first day of school I rolled out of bed five minutes before school started and did zoom ice breakers the entire day.”

This more rigorous workload seen in only just the first few weeks of school has affected students’ stress levels. 

“I feel so much more overwhelmed with my classes than last year and I’m not even taking that many more harder classes,” Shannon Lynch ’23 said. “I think it’s the additional stress of the schedule change and the high expectations going into this year that wasn’t there last year that’s causing this stress.” 

Noah Saed ’25 also feels the more rigorous workload affecting his mental health and the vast differences between this year and last year being online.

“I would say I am more stressed since I’ve definitely gotten more work so far this year than I did at all last year online,” Saed said. 

In addition to the stress caused by this new school routine, student-athletes are also combating stress from more intense sports schedules this year.

“We have cross country meets every Saturday and Tuesday which is a huge difference from last year because we only had three meets the entire season,” Cailen Geller ’22 said. “We get home later this year also which pushes back when I start my homework and leaves me more stressed and tired at night.” 

Students will definitely need time to adapt to this new cycle and workload. They optimistically hope the year will get easier as time goes on.